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The Nightmare Men: “A Doctor, Darkly”

The Nightmare Men: “A Doctor, Darkly”

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800px-carmillaIt’s always best to begin at the start, to quote no one in particular. We’ll start with the introductions: my name is Josh Reynolds and I wanted to be a detective when I grew up…no, not just a detective.

I wanted to be an occult detective. I wanted to be Donald Pleasance hunting down the Horse of the Invisible, or Peter Cushing making a cross out of candlesticks and shoving them right all up in Christopher Lee’s fang-y mug. I wanted to be Carl Kolchak, Thomas Carnacki and Dr. Strange. I wanted to bust up eldritch cults, Draculas and devil-worshipping biker gangs.

Unfortunately, my wife won’t let me. So, instead, I scratch the monster-hunting, ghost-busting itch by writing…well, stuff like this. ‘This’, of course, being ‘The Nightmare Men’ (of which this is the first installment, natch), a series of semi-regular essays on the subject of occult detectives; one part introduction, one part analysis, all awesome, all the time. Basically, if you’ve ever wanted a primer on occult detectives, the Nightmare Men is for you. And we begin with the granddaddy of them all…

Sheridan Le Fanu’s Dr. Martin Hesselius.

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Blogging Marvel’s The Tomb of Dracula, Part Nine

Blogging Marvel’s The Tomb of Dracula, Part Nine

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tod-44The Tomb of Dracula #44, “His Name is Doctor Strange” kicks off the series’ crossover with Marvel’s flagship occult title, Doctor Strange. The crossover was a natural choice given the characters and the fact that artist Gene Colan had a past association with Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts. Admittedly, the physical resemblance between Colan’s rendition of Stephen Strange and the Lord of Vampires is a bit too close for comfort, but Marv Wolfman delivers a solid script that makes the crossover fun despite failing to live up to the potential of what the meeting between these two characters might have been.

The story gets underway with Strange retrieving his faithful manservant, Wong from the crystal ball he had mystically disappeared into only to find his valet has been bitten by a vampire. Strange enters the crystal ball and visits the past to see Wong interrupting Dracula’s attack on an innocent woman and then watches through Wong’s eyes as the vampire turns on his manservant. This intriguing set-up sets Strange off to put an end to Dracula’s reign of terror. From here, we segue to a largely pointless comic relief subplot where tabloid journalist Harold H. Harold is incensed to learn that his publisher’s sexy, but dimwitted receptionist Aurora Rabinowitz has sold her story about their encounter with Dracula and earned a byline.

ds-14From there, we move to the much more interesting subplot involving the white-haired vampire who is being sought by both Blade and Hannibal King. The actual conflict between Dracula and Dr. Strange comes off rather well with the sorcerer tracking the vampire to his coffin and entering an astral battle with the vampire in 15th Century Wallachia. Unsurprisingly, Strange underestimates the vampire’s hypnotic powers and is attacked and bitten by Dracula. The issue’s real climax sees Blade and Hannibal King meeting for the first time on the trail of the white-haired vampire who ruined both of their lives.

Doctor Strange #14, “The Tomb of Doctor Strange” concludes the crossover with Steve Englehart’s script fitting as seamlessly into Wolfman’s storyline as Wolfman did with his in the first part. This uncommonly effective crossover can be contributed to the fact that Wolfman edited both titles. As the story gets underway, we learn that Strange’s astral form is still free while his physical body has fallen victim to the vampire. More significantly, Dracula first stumbles upon the deconsecrated Boston church in this issue which will play such an important role in the next story arc. Englehart also begins a continuing storyline with Dracula being pursued by an unseen spirit who taunts him with visions from his past. Dracula returns to feast on Strange and the magician’s astral form re-enters his body, awakening him. Strange calls on Jehovah and creates an astral cross which causes the vampire’s death. The effects of Strange and Wong’s vampire bits are reversed with Dracula’s death at the issue’s rushed conclusion.

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Goth Chick News: Old Dog, New “Twixt”

Goth Chick News: Old Dog, New “Twixt”

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image002The cool thing about Francis Ford Coppola (minus the “Ford” bit if you followed his work in the ‘80’s) is that, chances are he’s responsible for at least one movie in your top ten, regardless of your favorite genre.

From The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, to Peggy Sue Got Married and The Cotton Club, Coppola has never stuck to one movie “type,” but instead stretched his creativity into many corners for better or worse. Love them or hate them (or in some cases both), I’m betting Coppola movies can be found among your favorite quotes, your DVD collection or your Netflix queue.

But though he’s easily associated with making “an offer (you) can’t refuse,” Coppola is possibly least known for his forays into horror; though arguably this is his roots.

Beginning in 1963 with his first big budget film The Terror starring Jack Nicholson in one of his first roles and Boris Karloff in one of his last, Coppola followed up with Dementia 13 later that same year.

By his own admission, horror is where Francis Ford got a foothold in Hollywood.

However, it would be another thirty years before Coppola would return to the genre that gave him his break.

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The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities!

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities!

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Rejoice and make merry!

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities is available for purchase from today! Look at it!

I give you also a sample collage of the interior!

I have a story in this. I keep saying that and grinning because it is so unbelievable a thing. I am overjoyed about this for gazillions of reasons, most of which are variations on the following:

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Art of the Genre: Art of Anthologies

Art of the Genre: Art of Anthologies

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Stephen Hickman brings the Man-Kzin Wars to life as a beautiful anthology produced by Larry Niven
Stephen Hickman brings the Man-Kzin Wars to life as a beautiful anthology produced by Larry Niven

I’m not really sure if this can be classified at ‘art’, but certainly there is an art to the creation of anthologies. I mean, for all intents and purpose, Black Gate is an anthology, the scope and size of these new issues making it more a book than a magazine.

John O’Neill, our venerable editor, has done a fantastic job of giving his readers both the feel of an anthology while also being committed enough to each story as to provide wonderful art with it. That artistic contribution, in my opinion, is something that helps define what Black Gate is trying to do, and although the art direction in each issue’s very essence isn’t held to a single vision, the coherence of the product is still maintained in the highest quality.

Black Gate also weaves a thick quilt of characters within its pages, the repeated inclusion of certain authors allowing stories and characters to build, grow, and foster a relationship with a reader that many contemporary anthologies can’t produce. I’ve seen reviewers try to knock this, but in the end several have come around to indicate that John’s repeated choices are one of their favorite pieces of the magazine.

The art of the short story in its very nature is a simple entertainment, a microcosm of imagination that I fear is too often read like a teaser trailer found before your main attraction at the local Cineplex. In them we are often required to be told rather than shown a story, and I’m reminded of the musky depth of Don Lafontaine’s voice when I’m provided back story inside stories of already limited words… his signature opening ever echoing in my brain… ‘In a world where…’

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Tattoos and Fantasy! Proposal!

Tattoos and Fantasy! Proposal!

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This one's mine. It's a frikkin JESTER! With wings! And a TAIL! It has a story. What's yours? (Art by Rebecca Huston.)
This one's mine. It's a frikkin JESTER! With wings! And a TAIL! It has a story. What's yours? (Art by Rebecca Huston.)

Dear Fantasy Writers,

Pretty soon I (and an Editing Wizard of my acquaintance) will be putting together a thing for Black Gate (possibly an article, possibly a short documentary-type-thingy for YouTube) about Fantasy writers and their tattoos. I know some folks view their ink and its significance as intensely personal. If this is the case with you, please ignore the rest of this message.

But if you are a published Fantasy writer, and have an image on your skin that you want to share, and a short paragraph about it, I’d love to see it!

I’d want a jpg of the image (high resolution) and, if at all possible, a voice clip of the story — from GarageBand or whatever. If not a voice clip, then a written paragraph would definitely suffice.

I’d also want a short bio about yourself and where we might find your published work. We’d link to it in the article-portion of this project. (I see it as both an article and documentary. It’s all still coming together in my own head.)

If participating in this Black Gate YouTubementary shenanigans interests you, I’d love to have your files by August 1st. This thing’ll probably be several months in the making, and we may not a.) get enough material or b.) get too much to use all of it — but whatever happens, I’d update all participants as we make progress.

So! Ideas? Hail and Well-Mets? Flagrant Compliments? “Absolutely want in!”s? Then write to me at claire(at)blackgate(dot) com

Thank you!

ScrumBrawl: Fantasy-Based Sports Goodness

ScrumBrawl: Fantasy-Based Sports Goodness

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scrumbrawlI’ve always been fascinated by the attempts of gaming companies to turn athletic sports into board games. Fascinated, but not quite intrigued enough to play one, until now.

Some of the most notable of these efforts seem to have historically come when a successful wargaming miniature company has reached its apex and is looking for a new product. (More on this below the fold.)

ScrumBrawl is a sports-based game that doesn’t fall into this category, not least because it is the introductory effort by newcomer VicTim Games. Instead of trying to leverage existing products and success, they’re using this game as their springboard into the marketplace and, I must say, it’s a good effort. It also uses cards instead of miniatures, which is part of the reason why the game goes for nearly half the price of some of the more established competitors.

Overall, the game is extremely enjoyable and easy to get into, with a minimal amount of fuss … and cost. If you can get over the lack of miniatures, and are looking for a quality game, this is a product you would do well to look into.

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Black Static #23

Black Static #23

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3451The June-July 2011 Black Static cover features a still from the film Agnosia and a crop of the artwork by Riki Rawling for V. H. Leslie’s story “Time Keeping.”  Here’s the opening paragraph:

Monday, 11:29 am

Time waits for no man. But Howard wasn’t just any man and Time would wait if it had to. Howard didn’t like to keep it waiting if he could help it. In fact, the only time he had kept time waiting was June 5th 2006 and that was only for 5 minutes and 45 seconds while he, agitated and bewildered, ran through darkened streets back to his flat, then around his workshop hastily setting in motion the mechanisms to resume it once more.

Other fiction for this bimonthly dark horror magazine includes “For Their Own Ends” by Joel Lane, “Electric Dreams” by Carole Johnstone, “Hail” by Daniel Kaysen, and contest winner “The Harvesting of Jackson Cade” by Robert Davies.

You can subscribe to the print version here, or the electronic edition here; there’s also a special discounted rate for a joint subscription to both Interzone and Black Static.

Blogging Marvel’s The Tomb of Dracula, Part Eight

Blogging Marvel’s The Tomb of Dracula, Part Eight

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tod-38tod-39The Tomb of Dracula #38, “Blood-Rush” continues the more light-hearted vein for the series with the change of setting from London to Boston as the comic relief characters of the Woody Allen-inspired Harold H. Harold and the ditzy bombshell Aurora Rabinowitz set out to score some blood so that Harold’s house guest, Dracula doesn’t die. The scene shifts to Dr. Sun’s Boston headquarters where he is monitoring, via closed circuit television, a meeting between Quincy Harker, Rachel Van Helsing and Frank Drake. The issue ends with Dracula, Quincy, Rachel and Frank captives of Dr. Sun and his murderous henchman, Juno with the unlikely duo of Harold and Aurora setting out to rescue the vampire who has promised Harold an interview so that he can meet his publisher’s deadline.

Issue #39, “The Death of Dracula” is highlighted by a gripping battle between Dracula and Juno. The hook-armed Chinese assassin seems to have stepped right out of Marvel’s Master of Kung-Fu series. The move to include offbeat comic relief supporting characters also seems influenced by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy’s acclaimed series. Both titles were unique for Marvel for eschewing the superhero formula and offering surprisingly modern updates of what were considered tired and perhaps exhausted literary properties (Dracula and Fu Manchu, respectively). Dracula is killed by Juno with a spike through the heart. The villainous henchman then uses a flame thrower to cremate Dracula on the spot. Quincy, Rachel, Frank and their new acquaintances, Harold and Aurora manage to escape Dr. Sun’s headquarters and alert the military to his scheme for world domination. The issue fades out on the maniacal Dr. Sun observing their meeting with the military, improbably via his ubiquitous closed circuit cameras, as the talking brain in a fish tank gloats over his seeming omnipotence.

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Goth Chick News: Time To See More Dead People

Goth Chick News: Time To See More Dead People

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image0101Believe me, fighting off the urge to be snarky every time I read something about Slasher Films is an exercise in self control.

If you recall, back in January I told you about the Guns ‘n Roses guitarist “Slash” who had just announced the launch of his new horror movie production company with a very cheesy name.

This had all the elements that make for a good rip on how running around looking like a rock and roll version of Son of Svengoolie doesn’t automatically mean you can make a palatable scary movie. However, before I was able to launch into a truly hardy, sarcastic tirade I was struck by the seemingly intriguing story lines that would be the first few big screen releases.

Maybe, just maybe this was going to be good after all.

Originally, Slasher Films announced four new projects; Nothing to Fear, Theorem, The Other Kingdom and Wake the Dead, billed as a film version of the graphic novel by Steve Niles who also happens to be Slash’s business partner.

This week we learned which of these concepts are going to become reality first.

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